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Helpful Tips from Professional Portland DJs

To Tip, or Not to Tip…All Events How To / Instructional

Tipping is an interesting topic these days, because if you have not noticed, this nation is not doing so well financially! With a very high unemployment rate, underemployment and the nation’s financial issues, many people choose not to tip on their wedding day. These days many couples are putting their wedding expenses on a credit card, which means they are already paying more than they should for their wedding. With credit card rates as high as 39.9% make sure you know and understand your credit cards terms if you are using credit to pay for any part of your wedding. Miscellaneous costs can add up very quickly, including tipping all or any of your vendors.

So, should you feel obligated to tip? Do vendors expect it?

I cannot answer on behalf of all vendors because I know some that are completely insulted when they are not tipped. This may be because of different times (new era for the wedding industry) also you still find that many “east coast” families will absolutely tip. MEGA Music has seen tipping go down, but “thank you notes” go up! We in NO WAY FEEL YOU SHOULD TIP US! We are the owners of MEGA Music, and there is a saying that “you should not tip the owner” and this is true in most cases. Personally, I only plan on tipping vendors at my wedding (next June) if they go extremely above and beyond. I will thank my vendors with a thank you card, and I will most likely give my photographer a gift card as we are getting married in Hawai’i and she will be the MOST important vendor along with the videographer if we choose to use one.

Here are other ideas to thank your vendors if you feel they went above and beyond:

*Send them a thank you card with a picture from the wedding day

*Send them an e-card with a referral that they can post on their website

*Send them a gift card

*Plant a tree in honor of their business and work

*Donate to a foundation that they support

Basically, if your wedding vendor did a great job, just let them know it in person or in simple thank you note. Really! We just love to know that we did everything possible to make your day special. Feedback is critical in this industry and we personally at MEGA Music love our client’s feedback.

Recently I read an article on Theknot.com about tipping your vendors that provide services and products for your wedding. Here are some points they gave as far as how much do you tip, if you choose to tip your vendors.

Caterer: $1-2 per head (this means you pay $1-2 per person at your wedding)

Wedding planner: Up to $500 or a nice gift

Wedding Hair & Make-up: 15-20% of the total bill for you and your bridal party

Wedding Delivery and Set-up Staff: $5-10 a person

Ceremony Officiate: You can donate up to $500 to the church or synagogue or tip the officiate $50-100

Ceremony Musicians: $15-20 per musician

Photographer/Videographer: Not standard to tip unless they are not the owner of the company, then you may tip $50-200

Wedding Reception Staff: $200-300 for you maitre d’ (if you have someone that was in charge of the staff and did an exceptional job)

Wedding Reception Attendants: $20-25 per bartender or waiter; $1 per guest for coat check and parking attendants (again, this is all relative to your situation)

Wedding Reception Band or DJ: $20-25 per musician if you hire a band and $50-150 for DJ’s

Wedding Transportation: 15-20% of the entire bill

To read the article in its entirety go to: http://wedding.theknot.com/wedding-planning/wedding-budget/articles/wedding-vendor-tipping-cheat-sheet.aspx

These days in the Portland area I find that most people who tip are paying $20,000 or more for their wedding.

Like I said earlier, DO NOT FEEL OBLIGATED TO TIP THESE DAYS! But if you want to, the cheat sheet does help for you to plan your budget around tipping your vendors. If you do choose to tip, MAKE SURE YOU BUDGET FOR IT!